potentia, power that has not been used yet
Potential
Potential is not a compliment. It is stored energy with no work done, and it stays that way until something is spent.
What is potential?
Potential is stored energy with no work done yet. From the Latin potentia, power, and in physics it is the energy an object has purely because of where it is sitting. Nothing has happened. Something could.
Why it works
Being told you have potential feels like praise and functions like a sedative, because it rewards the position rather than the movement. Stored energy only becomes real when it is spent, and spending it converts potential into evidence, which is the thing identity is actually built from. This is why Mindset Shifts exist: they hold what was spent, not what was possible.
How to use it
Notice where the word gets used about you, or by you. Then pick the smallest thing that would convert some of it, and do that this week. Potential that has been sitting still for a decade is not potential any more, it is a description of a shelf.
What proving it looks like
"Sent the first three pages to someone who would tell me the truth. 8 May."
Where this lands
Every Mindset Shift is potential that got spent. That is the whole economy.
This is one of the ideas inside Character Arc. See where it lands on your own line.